Present Perfect vs. The Celestia Code · 9:42pm Nov 6th, 2014
So I was going to post a fic rec journal today and then I realized, I already posted a journal. D: What, why did I do that? Oh well, at least I can do this instead! Fic recs tomorrow, Button Mash this weekend!
You can find part one of the audiobook by Visualpony here. If you wanna know what I thought of him, go take a look at the last rec journal!
iisaw's The Celestia Code is... Actually, I have no idea why I'm doing a vs. post on it, but who cares. It's a recent adventure fic that, as far as I can tell, generated a whole lot of attention and praise, and is definitely deserving of it. At its heart, this is an archaeological adventure, a little more low-key than Indiana Jones (or Daring Do, I'm sure), but still full of action and excitement. It features a romantic subplot with a good OC that went nowhere I ever expected it to, and it's chock-full of cool and clever world-building, focused mostly on changelings.
I've really got very little bad to say about this story. For being novel-length, it's perfectly paced, if not always consistently exciting (there are a few long passages that just explain stuff, but these don't exactly get boring, if only because the author's attention to detail when it comes to determining how magic works is impressive, not to mention in-character for Twilight). It's told from a first-person perspective, and Twilight Sparkle is voiced perfectly. We get to see her grow and mature over the course of the story, but she also starts out from a fairly mature perspective after or during the events of season 4 (I'm not quite sure about the timeline at play as to when this was written).
If anything, that characterization is what makes this piece really work. Reading this, I realized that I adore Take-Charge Twilight (is there a group like this? I'm gonna make one if there isn't), owning up to her newfound princesshood and putting it to work for her while still maintaining her underlying dorkiness, interest in science, and general social awkwardness. Said social awkwardness is an obstacle she works through but never quite surmounts during the course of the story, whether she's dealing with her sidekick's fan-filly crush or the aloof and malevolent changeling Queen. Twilight learns how to deal with deep emotional issues and the ramifications of a leadership role. And then in chapter 22, everything gets majorly awesome, but I shan't spoil it for you, because it's worth reading up to.
Speaking of characterization, Jigsaw is a great addition to the story. She evolves over the course of it as well, starting out naive and ending up... well, hopefully less naive. This being first-person, most of her development happens offscreen, and I found myself wondering if she ever truly got over Twilight, and if the relationship she ends up in isn't just the same misdirected lust on the rebound. Given what happens, well, I have to assume it wasn't, but one never knows. Still, she works as a good foil for Twilight, first because of the romance issue, and then simply because they get to know one another and become good friends, and she turns into the practical one whenever Twilight gets too excited about their work.
Next on the character list is the changelings. I didn't expect the General and Captain loaned to Twilight and Jigsaw by Chrysalis to become major characters, but they do, and I even found myself upset at the thought that the Captain might sacrifice her life near the end. (No more context on that one for you!) Chrysalis is the standout, however. Not only do we get a lot of really great background on changelings, but she's presented as sympathetic yet still flawed character, without ever once falling into standard ploys for sympathy. I compare this favorably to Queen of Queens in that regard (though I'm pretty sure that one came after this). Her backstory is rich and unique and definitely one of the highlights of this story.
And as for what they're doing, well, it sort of takes a backseat to the interpersonal drama, but the Badlands dig site nevertheless breathes. The descriptions are excellent and you really get a feeling for the unicorn supremacists who lived in the ruined city, and not as caricature pony Nazis, but as misguided ponies who truly believed in something and who caused their own downfall in the end. I was both impressed and surprised when the author tied this city into show canon as background for King Sombra, and that again was a standout aspect of the story, if only a minor one.
Missteps were few, but that point ties into one: there isn't a whole lot of code-solving going on here. While touted explicitly as not a Davinci Code crossover, this might be a spiritual descendant at least (I'm not familiar with it; there also might be some National Treasure in here, but I'm not familiar with that either). But there are maybe three codes during the course of the story, and another two puzzles besides. If you're here to solve mysteries with the characters, you won't have much opportunity to do so.
I'm glad I read Hooves of Clay, also by iisaw, prior to reading this, because it explained a couple of things that I can now say are quirks of the author's style. First -- and not a misstep -- is the incidental humor striped throughout the narrative. This isn't tagged comedy, but writing a serious story where the characters are allowed to laugh now and again keeps it from being too dour, and helps root it in the universe of the show. The second, more confusing issue, is Twilight's irrational hatred of changelings. It's not quite as strong as in HoC, but I couldn't help make the comparison when she first encounters them and begins to terrorize them right off the bat. (Don't worry, she gets better.)
Lastly, the footnotes. Fuck. It's a real shame that this site has no implementation for footnotes, because authors keep coming up with cockamamie ways to implement them themselves, and none of them are good solutions. Even the reader had difficulty with them, which I can't blame him for. Who puts footnotes right at the end of a paragraph? It's honestly the daftest thing about this piece, though again, I kind of can't fault the author for trying. Having them there in the first place is something of an odd choice, too. I can see Twilight making footnotes while telling a story, but at the same time, the more humorous ones belong in a slightly more comedically-toned piece rather than a mostly-serious adventure.
None of these things really put a damper on my reading experience. If anything, the worst thing I can say about this piece is that it never gets mindblowing. It starts off good and slowly ramps up to great while never dropping below that "good" rating, with chapter 22 being a notable positive spike. But never at any point did I feel like this was truly amazing, like my eyes were being opened to some nuance of the show that I had never considered before. It sure as hell is worth the read, though.
5/5 as of 5/11/16
A worthwhile and memorable adventure.
I've been meaning to read this book. I've heard it was good but if you say it's good then it just has to be awesome!
Clearly, the writer needed to use [ right_insert ]; that's probably the best way to integrate stuff like that if you're going to do it that way.
*sigh*
Fine, I'll get onto reading this. I've heard too many good things about it to keep on putting it off.
Ugh, but I had a friend tell me it was a horrible story!
I need a tiebreaker.
To the best of my memory, there are no codes at all in the story--just cyphers.
Pretty much agree with your overall analysis, though for different reasons. I actually loved the way the footnotes were done--I enjoy footnotes in my non-ponyfic, but I'd never found a fanfic where they were practically implemented for e-reader reading. This was the best solution I've seen so far.
2577940
Your friend is wrong!
I would highly recommend this one, myself. Great story, lots of fun.
The sequel I have...opinions on, and in the end actually unhappily downvoted it. One of the stories I'd have to reread with one eye squinted shut knowing what was happening.
This looks really good. My only pet peeve would be that other members of the mane 6 are not present. But that's not a huge deal now and then.
What exactly is the purpose of footnotes? I've seen GhostOfHeraclitus implement them into his/her comments, and I've seen them used in the Bartimaeus books that I've read. If I ignore them, it bugs me that they're there while I'm reading the story. If I do read them, it's effort I spend reading something apart from what I was currently reading, which derails the immersion for me. Is there a specific way for me to read them? Is it as pretentious and pointless as fine wine? Or is it something no "proper" author should do without?
2577851
What in the world does that do?
2577964
I suppose there's that. I found them flow-breaking and wondered why he didn't just use parentheticals. They're basically the same thing, only intra-paragraphic instead of post-.
2578040
It was kind of refreshing seeing Twilight go off on adventure more or less by herself for once.
2578344
Frankly, I have no idea. Like I said above, in this story, they're mostly the same as parentheticals, or passages set off by emdashes: they expand on the narrative or else add comedy. I don't really understand what a footnote provides that those structures don't, especially on a site that doesn't support them. The only reason I can think of for using them is "pretentiousness", but to call this story pretentious would be a gross error. I'm as baffled as you.
2577851
GAH! Thank you, I was trying to remember what that BBcode was for something I was working on. Thanks a bunch for reminding me.
Personally, I've always enjoyed stories that use footnotes--something about the way I read them makes them funnier than just a plain parenthetical statement or a passage set off by em-dashes. I especially liked iisaw's way of doing them, as it was much more readable than putting everything at the bottom. A bit peculiar, yes, but it worked for the way I read.
Good story. Y'all should read it. I'm kind of annoyed he ships Twilight "I'm not gay" Sparkle with Luna in the sequel, but meh. I liked how he did the footnotes.
2578534 Oh lord, I thought it was just me. Thank you for being as baffled as I am! It makes me feel less baffled.
It's not so bad if the footnotes aren't too far from where I was currently reading. But damn if I have to scroll to the bottom of the page for tidbits of pointless info. If the footnotes aren't somehow in the passage itself (or not too far from it), then I'd rather just ignore it. The story takes precedence, for me at least.
2578534
If you look at, say, this post, you can see the effect - it creates a small box over on the right-hand side of the blog post/story. It used to work on the forums/comments, but I think Knighty broke it with the last update.
2578534
I enjoyed the way the "footnotes" are handled in this, personally. They did break the flow a bit, but using footnotes as opposed to parentheses felt particularly like Twilight, and having the explanation in sight of what it is referencing gives me some interesting control over how I refer to it. I can easily see how it could be annoying to both read out loud and to listen to, though.
2578752
Oh. Huh. That's... odd...
2578780
Frickin whoa. Now I know how the bbcode wizards do it! :D
Though I'm not sure how it would look in a story, I'd be willing to entertain the idea. Know anyone who's used it?
2579079
Visualpony read the footnote number when it appeared in the paragraph, and then again when he started the footnote. It was a number of chapters before I could figure out what the hell he was doing.
2579374
I don't know of anyone who has used it in an actual story, though you might take a gander at the Footnotes of Awesome group and see if any of the stories listed there have done so.
It seems like the closest thing to the bottom of the page type footnotes used in, say, Good Omens, or the sidebar notation in textbooks which I see from time to time.
I'm happy you liked this story as well. As for the footnotes, I enjoy that sort of thing and I am really happy with the people who do it at the end of the paragraph because that's the only practical way to do them in the ebook versions.
2579498
The one thing I'm trying to get across is no one has to use them. I mean really. c.c
2579534
Crazy talk!
2579534
No one has to write MLP fanfiction either, yet here we are...
As much as I love dropping parentheses anywhere and everywhere, they aren't interchangeable with footnotes. Especially in this case, where footnotes are in-character. They give the text a veneer of academia, without the substance--entirely appropriate, because it's nominally Twilight trying to tell the story in a popular style, but slipping into the forms she's more comfortable with as she writes.
2579722
I have to write MLP fanfic. D:
As the editor/proofreader for a fair majority of TCC, I agree that the footnotes were rather... fun to place correctly and ensure they didn't spoil something from 2 chapters ahead by mistake.
Hopefully it didn't become too jarring for the readers.
That said, good review!